The present invention relates to hitches for connecting a towing lawn mower to a towed lawn mower.
There have been used for many years a towing or powered vehicle, having a hitch to connect it to a towed vehicle. Generally, these have included tractors, towing various farm implements, and in more recent years, there has been suggested the provision of a riding mower for the mowing of a lawn, together with a hitch for towing a push-type lawn mower behind and laterally of the towing lawn mower of the riding type.
Various configurations of such hitches have been provided, including a number in which a link or links has extended behind the towing lawn mower, connected to a bar or bars extending laterally to each side, and with a pair of towed lawn mowers connected to the laterally extending bar, so as to mow a pair of paths laterally adjacent the path moved by the towing lawn mower.
In addition, there have been provided a number of suggestions in the prior art whereby a towing vehicle, such as a tractor or a lawn mower, has towed laterally behind it, by a hitch arrangement, a mower powered only from its own power source, or from the power take off of the tractor, as the case may be. These did not provide, however, for the ready alternate positioning of the single towed lawn mower from being laterally on one side to being laterally on the other side. This, therefore, was a deficiency, because of the fact that in certain situations, it is not always possible to have the towed mower extending from the same side of the towing mower.
Further, the hitches provided in the prior art were often complex and expensive in construction, and somewhat difficult to assemble and to attach to the lawn mowers. Further, there was not provided in the prior art the provision of a system for enabling the hitches to be utilized with a number of different constructions of towed lawn mowers, such as occur amongst the lawn mowers being manufactured and distributed at this time.